MId week day off from writing ( a new rule ) - To be honest I left work pretty late so felt too tired to lock myself away for another night, besides I feel pretty accomplished from the past few sessions :-)
I also spent a while on the Marsheaux forum and answering some NK emails.
We had some interest from a manager pre Christmas, he looks after a very well known solo artist. He sent an email today that was very frank and to be honest I have been doing quite a bit of thinking about it. Ultimately it would mean making some very difficult decisions about how we proceed. It would possibly mean a step-up to a level that would see us loosing quite a bit of control over our own destiny. At this stage in our lives Northern Kind exists to give us enjoyment in doing something we love. By making it the sole focus in earning us a living would possibly turn this scenario into music being just a boring day job, that would never do.
So there we have it, not a very productive day music wise by nonetheless quite eventful.
Ciao x
PS Was randomly listening to the new 'Ideas' on my mac today, by filtering the word 'ideas' in iTunes I also came across this song by Tears for Fear "Ideas As Opiates" - Just thought I would say how good their first album was - "The Hurting" they are often forgotten in the grand scheme of electronica, but they had some great moments. I also worked for their original keyboard player.
Roland Orzabal released an album a few years ago, it included a brilliant track called 'Low Life' which was great.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Tuesday 8th Jan
Today I decided to play with a sound I had sampled over Christmas. Sitting on the sofa pigging snacks and probably getting quite drunk I started tapping an empty Pringles tube, I quite liked it so decided to record some various ways of me hitting it.
So after spending 20 minutes tonight or so editing it and tuning it using the ESX-24 sampler within logic, I ended up with a sound that reminded me of something The Knife had used on "We share our mothers health"
I then started creating some loops with bass sounds from the Moog Modular V and preset kits from Ultrabeat. Melodically it wasn't going anywhere but had a good groove to it. One of the bass sounds I was using reminded me of a sound used on "Shout" the DM B-side to "New Life", so I turned to the ARP 2600 to try and get yet another percussive loop influenced by this track. I knew that this was used by DM and that Vince Clarke had recreated this on his "Lucky Bastard" sample CD so the ARP was an obvious choice. The problem is when you need a fairly complex sound and sequence the ARP is a bit of a bugger to get to grips with. I decided on a synth I was more familiar with, the Jupiter-8v. The additional features that Arturia have bolted on to this version include a matrix sequencer. So after about five minutes I had pretty much created the sequenced loop I was after using a simple sound modulated by the sequencer. This idea was taking shape so I decided to try and write a proper structure with different song parts.
This idea now has three different sections but is still very much an evolving groove. So again I emailed Sarah a link to the track and this was her response.
From: "Sarah Heeley"
Date: 9 January 2008 09:47:52 GMT
To: "Matt Culpin"
Subject: once you pop
...should be the title for this ;-)
Holy COW this is cool.
What about doing this track with spoken vocals???? And just a few oohs
and ahhhhs??
Well done x
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Culpin
Sent: 09 January 2008 00:00
To: Sarah Heeley
Subject: snack food
howdie, something a bit different for you.
http://www.northernkind.co.uk/...
the noise at the start and used elsewhere is a tuned Pringles tube :-)
So after spending 20 minutes tonight or so editing it and tuning it using the ESX-24 sampler within logic, I ended up with a sound that reminded me of something The Knife had used on "We share our mothers health"
I then started creating some loops with bass sounds from the Moog Modular V and preset kits from Ultrabeat. Melodically it wasn't going anywhere but had a good groove to it. One of the bass sounds I was using reminded me of a sound used on "Shout" the DM B-side to "New Life", so I turned to the ARP 2600 to try and get yet another percussive loop influenced by this track. I knew that this was used by DM and that Vince Clarke had recreated this on his "Lucky Bastard" sample CD so the ARP was an obvious choice. The problem is when you need a fairly complex sound and sequence the ARP is a bit of a bugger to get to grips with. I decided on a synth I was more familiar with, the Jupiter-8v. The additional features that Arturia have bolted on to this version include a matrix sequencer. So after about five minutes I had pretty much created the sequenced loop I was after using a simple sound modulated by the sequencer. This idea was taking shape so I decided to try and write a proper structure with different song parts.
This idea now has three different sections but is still very much an evolving groove. So again I emailed Sarah a link to the track and this was her response.
From: "Sarah Heeley"
Date: 9 January 2008 09:47:52 GMT
To: "Matt Culpin"
Subject: once you pop
...should be the title for this ;-)
Holy COW this is cool.
What about doing this track with spoken vocals???? And just a few oohs
and ahhhhs??
Well done x
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Culpin
Sent: 09 January 2008 00:00
To: Sarah Heeley
Subject: snack food
howdie, something a bit different for you.
http://www.northernkind.co.uk/...
the noise at the start and used elsewhere is a tuned Pringles tube :-)
Monday 7th Jan.
You have to bear in mind that NK has to fit within our regular day jobs, normally for me the prospect of coming home and then locking myself away to work on tunes is usually out weighed for a night in front of the TV with a bottle of wine. Today however I started my New Years regime of getting up early for the gym, eating well & no alcohol. It seemed to have done the trick as I felt quite perky still at 8.00pm so decided to have a go at some music.
Sounds often influence what I play, tonight after tweaking a preset on the CS-80v I ended up with a synthy flute sound that I started to play a repetitive lead line with. I then added my stock ES-1 kick sound to create the back-bone of a beat. The bassline I added was fairly simple and provided by the Jupiter-8v, a bit of a waste of such a powerful synth but hey it fitted well. Within about 10 minutes I then had a nice short chord sequence using a short sound from the ES-1. After adding some creative delay and evolving cutoff filter throughout each bar the idea really started to take shape. At this stage I start to hear what other sounds will work well and the possible progression through from the verse into the chorus and so on.
I then added more parts to the drum track using a synth snare from the Albino synth with Kick and hats coming from one of the Ultrabeat preset kits. The tom sounds on this kit also were added, odd but these really added a commercial element to this idea, I then quickly added the bridge and potential chorus parts. This idea was then pretty much finished, all within about an hour.
This track was then named 006, simply because my folder of ideas had already used 001 through to 005. Sarah has 001, 002 & 004 to work with. 003 I'm not quite sure about yet, it's more just a collection of sounds rather than a song.
I then uploaded this idea and then emailed Sarah, this was her response.
From: Miss Sarah Heeley
Date: 8 January 2008 13:11:12 GMT
To: Matt Culpin
Subject: Epic
I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I la-la-la-la-like it........
Bloody hell, this album's gonna be a stonker - and at this rate will be finished by spring 08 ;-)
Get in.
Matt Culpin wrote:
track coming atcha with soundz of the future
http://www.northernkind.co.uk/...
x
Sounds often influence what I play, tonight after tweaking a preset on the CS-80v I ended up with a synthy flute sound that I started to play a repetitive lead line with. I then added my stock ES-1 kick sound to create the back-bone of a beat. The bassline I added was fairly simple and provided by the Jupiter-8v, a bit of a waste of such a powerful synth but hey it fitted well. Within about 10 minutes I then had a nice short chord sequence using a short sound from the ES-1. After adding some creative delay and evolving cutoff filter throughout each bar the idea really started to take shape. At this stage I start to hear what other sounds will work well and the possible progression through from the verse into the chorus and so on.
I then added more parts to the drum track using a synth snare from the Albino synth with Kick and hats coming from one of the Ultrabeat preset kits. The tom sounds on this kit also were added, odd but these really added a commercial element to this idea, I then quickly added the bridge and potential chorus parts. This idea was then pretty much finished, all within about an hour.
This track was then named 006, simply because my folder of ideas had already used 001 through to 005. Sarah has 001, 002 & 004 to work with. 003 I'm not quite sure about yet, it's more just a collection of sounds rather than a song.
I then uploaded this idea and then emailed Sarah, this was her response.
From: Miss Sarah Heeley
Date: 8 January 2008 13:11:12 GMT
To: Matt Culpin
Subject: Epic
I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
I la-la-la-la-like it........
Bloody hell, this album's gonna be a stonker - and at this rate will be finished by spring 08 ;-)
Get in.
Matt Culpin wrote:
track coming atcha with soundz of the future
http://www.northernkind.co.uk/...
x
New Year...
We have begun to write for our next ep and album so we thought we would document this process and our progress. I really enjoyed reading the Gareth Jones (Producing Erasure Blog) that he wrote during the recording of their last album so this is kind of what we would like to do for our own project. What was encouraging about this was the relatively simple set-up of equipment and proof that to create a great sounding album you don't need large budgets.
For the mixing of our last album I was torn between getting someone else to do it and investing in gear to help me get the best from my own set-up. I checked out a couple of local studios that had decent equipment lists but handing over something that I was quite precious about to a complete stranger was going to be costly and not necessarily give me the results I wanted. What I really needed was a controlled audio environment and fresh ears. In the end I decided on the investment and spent just under £2K on some Dynaudio BM 6A MKII powered monitors (http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com/Default.asp?Id=9447) and the SSL Duende (http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/duende_home.html) The Duende is probably by far the best thing I have spent my money on. Having worked on SSL desks before the ability they give you to knit mixes together is incredible, someone described the Duende as audio glue. What the Duende gives you is 32 mono channels of an SSL console to use within Logic and most other DAWs.
I had written pretty much everything on my Apple G5 1.8Ghz Dual Processor Mac using Logic 7.2 and handful of software synths. The main synths were the ES-2 included within logic and the ImpOsca synth. Most of the drum sounds came from the ES-1 synth and Ultrabeat.
Over the years of dabbling with music I alway thought having a vast array of synths and sound sources was the thing to do, in-fact the smaller range of synths I use the more creative I am, I think it's because you learn how to use them and quickly get the sounds you want.
That said I have pretty much overhauled my set-up in preparation for our next album. I have also converted my attic into a proper studio space, no windows but a fairly good acoustic environment.
My equipment list is now as follows.
Apple G5 Quad Processor, 3GB RAM, 250 GB HD plus 4 additional back-up drives.
2 * Formac 19" LCD Displays
M-Audio Axiom 61 Midi / USB Keyboard
M-Audio NRV-10 Firewire audio interface / mixer.
SSL Duende
Dynaudio BM 6A MKII - Monitors
AKG - Solid tube mic.
Software.
Apple Logic Pro 8
Korg Legacy Collection (MS20 - POLY 6 - WAVESTATION)
GMEDIA - Oddity, Minimonsta, ImpOsca
Arturia V Collection (Jupiter 8c, CS-80c, Moog Modular, Mini Moog, ARP-2600, Prophet V, Prophet VS)
Rob Papen - Albino
So enough of techno babble for now...
In October '07 I worked on a couple of ideas, these were going to form our Project X ep along with Tears & Tinsel, to be honest I think we ran out of steam and decided to pick it up in the New Year. Therefore we never got to release T&T but we will save that for Xmas '08. The handful of ideas that I gave to Sarah have now started to come together. Sarah sent me a txt message a few nights ago saying that the first one was cracked and it sounded like Status Quo. I'm not sure what that means, maybe Sarah will explain.
So now to start the Diary bit.
For the mixing of our last album I was torn between getting someone else to do it and investing in gear to help me get the best from my own set-up. I checked out a couple of local studios that had decent equipment lists but handing over something that I was quite precious about to a complete stranger was going to be costly and not necessarily give me the results I wanted. What I really needed was a controlled audio environment and fresh ears. In the end I decided on the investment and spent just under £2K on some Dynaudio BM 6A MKII powered monitors (http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com/Default.asp?Id=9447) and the SSL Duende (http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/duende_home.html) The Duende is probably by far the best thing I have spent my money on. Having worked on SSL desks before the ability they give you to knit mixes together is incredible, someone described the Duende as audio glue. What the Duende gives you is 32 mono channels of an SSL console to use within Logic and most other DAWs.
I had written pretty much everything on my Apple G5 1.8Ghz Dual Processor Mac using Logic 7.2 and handful of software synths. The main synths were the ES-2 included within logic and the ImpOsca synth. Most of the drum sounds came from the ES-1 synth and Ultrabeat.
Over the years of dabbling with music I alway thought having a vast array of synths and sound sources was the thing to do, in-fact the smaller range of synths I use the more creative I am, I think it's because you learn how to use them and quickly get the sounds you want.
That said I have pretty much overhauled my set-up in preparation for our next album. I have also converted my attic into a proper studio space, no windows but a fairly good acoustic environment.
My equipment list is now as follows.
Apple G5 Quad Processor, 3GB RAM, 250 GB HD plus 4 additional back-up drives.
2 * Formac 19" LCD Displays
M-Audio Axiom 61 Midi / USB Keyboard
M-Audio NRV-10 Firewire audio interface / mixer.
SSL Duende
Dynaudio BM 6A MKII - Monitors
AKG - Solid tube mic.
Software.
Apple Logic Pro 8
Korg Legacy Collection (MS20 - POLY 6 - WAVESTATION)
GMEDIA - Oddity, Minimonsta, ImpOsca
Arturia V Collection (Jupiter 8c, CS-80c, Moog Modular, Mini Moog, ARP-2600, Prophet V, Prophet VS)
Rob Papen - Albino
So enough of techno babble for now...
In October '07 I worked on a couple of ideas, these were going to form our Project X ep along with Tears & Tinsel, to be honest I think we ran out of steam and decided to pick it up in the New Year. Therefore we never got to release T&T but we will save that for Xmas '08. The handful of ideas that I gave to Sarah have now started to come together. Sarah sent me a txt message a few nights ago saying that the first one was cracked and it sounded like Status Quo. I'm not sure what that means, maybe Sarah will explain.
So now to start the Diary bit.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Christmas Single.
I love Christmas and for as long as I can remember I have wanted to write a Christmas song. This has conflicted somewhat with also wanting to establish credibility for Northern Kind. So my suggestion to Sarah to do something Christmassy was maybe me admitting that I was in fact out of touch with popular music. Ultimately I write music for me to enjoy, that fact that other people do enjoy our music and often write and tell us is still a bit weird but none the less very satisfying.
Right, so we have a Christmas song, it will be released on iTunes on December 3rd, I have no idea where it will get placed and this still seems pretty random. It was great to reach prime position across Europe, I never expected that but boy was it great to be higher in the charts than Bjork, Kraftwerk, The Knife plus many of the artists I have been in awe of.
Myself and Sarah had a conversation on the way back from one of our odd gigs, amongst the topics where the new world order, relationships, drugs, babies and the oscillators used in the roland system 700 modular synth we talked about Christmas songs. A pattern emerged that the best songs always had a dark and sometimes anti Christmas themes.
For example,
Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
All the things that Christmas promises but never delivers. Lies full of tinsel and fire, snow but usually rain, piece on earth, yeah right!
Jona Lewie - Stop the cavalry
Again quite an odd topic, the video depicted a WWI scene however the line "Nuclear fall out zone" confused me a little. But anyway another depressing Christmas song. Also for the obsessive geeks out there. Jona Lewie also had a couple of other hits including - "You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties" If you listen to the melody of that song line it's exactly the same melody from Erasures "Don't say no" the B-Side of "Heavenly Action. I really am a nerd.
Band Aid - Do they know it's Christmas
OK I'm not going to knock a brilliant song, but again a sad message at Christmas time and quite rightly so.
So what I am getting at is... Christmas is a magical time for most of us but for some it's just another day. That is really what our Christmas song is about. Nothing to do with personal experiences... honest.
It is a great frickin song though and it deserves to be massive
Nuff said.
Matt
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Sheffield (Sarah)
I was trundling along the other day, lost in thoughts of shopping and work, when I came across this. It's a gigantic poem called 'What if', that has been installed on to the side of Sheffield Hallam University. It's been written by the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.
I love it, for raising my eyes to the sky and giving me a flash of inspiration in an otherwise dull day. I love what it's saying - that our thoughts and actions impact the environment that we live in - and that we can be whoever we want to be.
But most of all I love the way it sets Sheffield up, as a city of possibilities.
I think it should be compulsory for all ugly buildings to have inspirational art stuck to their sides.
(You never know - you might see some of my lyrics up in lights one day)
This photo sums up why I love Sheffield.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Slight Rant & News
I'm not one for moaning about other artists especially those that have sold more albums that I could ever dream about selling BUT The new Kylie song and video "2 Hearts" is just boring.
Not that Kylie has ever been an innovator but like Madonna she has stayed current and fresh, I get the feeling the background for this song was. "I want to sound like Goldfrapp, but don't make it too electronic as that would be obvious." - the video also has the look of "Ooh La La" which came out two years ago. Sorry Kylie but you're "Loosing your edge"
Anyway we are recording the vocals for our Christmas Song on Friday after going to see the lovely Marsheaux who are performing live at the Hoxton Sq, Bar and Grill tomorrow night. They are coming all the way from Athens so hopefully there will be a good crowd.
Turrah
Mattx
Not that Kylie has ever been an innovator but like Madonna she has stayed current and fresh, I get the feeling the background for this song was. "I want to sound like Goldfrapp, but don't make it too electronic as that would be obvious." - the video also has the look of "Ooh La La" which came out two years ago. Sorry Kylie but you're "Loosing your edge"
Anyway we are recording the vocals for our Christmas Song on Friday after going to see the lovely Marsheaux who are performing live at the Hoxton Sq, Bar and Grill tomorrow night. They are coming all the way from Athens so hopefully there will be a good crowd.
Turrah
Mattx
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